


Just Like In The Movies

by argentConflagration, PeregrineWilliams



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-02
Updated: 2014-09-02
Packaged: 2018-02-15 22:27:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2245674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/argentConflagration/pseuds/argentConflagration, https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeregrineWilliams/pseuds/PeregrineWilliams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Terezi and Karkat always intersect.</p><p>Happy Karezi Day, everyone!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Like In The Movies

 

You met him when you were five, on an online forum for a movie you both liked. He mocked your rping of the characters and you mocked his longwinded speculation about offscreen romantic relationships. There were many times when you'd stay up at day, long past when you normally slept, just to argue with him about characterization. He was a ridiculous person to argue with--he called you "colorfreak" and "dragon monkey" and "psychedelic imp", and you just sent him grinning emotes and told him those all sounded like awesome things to be, and he resolved to come up with better insults next time. One night he introduced you to his friend Sollux, who was also your kind of asshole, and you two hit it off immediately. Sollux even sometimes opened up to you: he'd admit his insecurities and let you promise him he wasn't as awful as he thought he was.

Karkat was more of a challenge. Always blustering and ranting, hiding behind a spew of words that were at once eloquent and asinine. He was clearly smart, maybe as smart as you even, but obviously hiding his true self out of fear of emotional vulnerability. Just waiting for someone like you to come along, a troll who could take on any challenge, and you'd break down his emotional walls and he'd fall in love with you and you'd become quadranted and you'd take on the galaxy together just like Cechix and Sorano in the movie, who were a much better red couple than Cechix and Heltes.

Of course, things didn't quite work out that way. You were persistent, but he was even more stubborn, and he continued to throw up walls and push you away. And slowly you began to give up. You were still friends, sure, and you guess you never really stopped flirting with him, but you lost hope of trying to get to him, to rescue him. Until the game.

 

* * *

 

In the time since you'd met, Terezi had shifted from being the one who was wrong about everything--who shot down all your ships and portrayed all the characters inaccurately--to being the one who bickered with you sometimes and laughed at you a lot but was still definitely your friend ... you were pretty sure. She didn't cling to you like Gamzee did, and you never anxiously made sure you were still friends like you did with Sollux, but she seemed to enjoy your company (God knows why), and you enjoyed hers, though you'd never have admitted that to her.

Your relationship shifted again when she started teasing you all the time. Suddenly everything was "you're so handsome" and "swoon" and even "you should come visit me sometime." It threw you, for sure. Because she was attractive, absolutely, and she could take advantage of that attractiveness to fluster you and get a rise out of you. That was sort of how your friendship was, joshing each other and provoking each other and trying not to hit too hard.

When you finally met in person, on her planet, the teasing only got more intense. You didn't like touch and she respected that, but she was still always making _faces_ and _gestures_ and generally winking and grinning at you at every possible opportunity.

One moment was a little more serious, though. You were fighting your way through your planet--let the record reflect, by the way, that you kicked serious amounts of imp ass and were a completely amazing badass team and it was just this one particular spot that was a little tougher--and you ran into a bunch of trouble at once. You were both exhausted, and needed to catch your breath. She spotted--or sniffed out, you guess--a tiny hiding place, a crevice in the rock face that the both of you could just barely fit into if you wanted to avoid being seen. But you shoved and squirmed your way in nonetheless, and Terezi smooshed herself in right up against you. You could feel Terezi's heart hammering and her chest heaving as she rapidly caught her breath.

 

 

"We're certainly between a rock and a hard place, huh, Karkat?" she said with a weak smile. Actually quite a lot of her body was pressed against you. Her sweat against your skin was much less unpleasant than it should have been.

You groaned at the pun, but you could tell she was nervous. You were nervous. There were dragon-ogres ten times your height out there looking for you, you had a right to be goddamn nervous.

She rested her head on your shoulder, and after a minute of hesitation you reciprocated. She inhaled and exhaled, long and slow and deliberate, calming you down.

You didn't say anything else for a while, you just stood there with your face against her hair, feeling her breaths, feeling her heart.

She teased you about it afterward, of course. But by then you'd decided you were a little less embarrassed to be in love with Terezi Pyrope.

 

* * *

 

The sound of your blade exiting her body was sickening.

You stood dumbly as she fell, smelled the blueberry blood seeping from the wound and pooling around her. There was a voice in the back of your head: "It's not like you've never killed anyone before." It wasn't incorrect.

Someone approached you from behind--Karkat. You turned to him, without explanation for the blood on your sword or the corpse at your feet. He was shaken, too. Maybe he thought you were one of the bad ones now.

But all he did was step forward and put his arms around you. You returned the embrace without sobbing or crying. You couldn't make a sound, really. You were just so _exhausted_.

 

 

* * *

 

Terezi was slipping away from you. Obviously any chance of a romantic relationship was long gone, past you having apparently believed that wanting her hard enough would make her yours. That wasn't what you were losing now. Now you seemed to be losing Terezi herself, her whole existence being sucked into a black hole of guilt and self-hatred.  

You found her in a dreambubble one day, her hood pulled low over her face. You hadn't seen her for a few day/night cycles and were frankly surprised to see her asleep at a normal hour. She didn't look good, and you worried about her. That was your fault, too, you reminded yourself, at least a little bit. After all, her first relationship had been with a complete asshole who alternated between ignoring her affection and paranoid displays of jealousy. If you could call what you and she had a relationship, anyway. You wanted it back, if only for the chance to make things right again.  

You tried to reason with her, convince her that she was way more awesome than the bunch of assholes you'd just met. You knew what it was like to be in the grip of self-loathing, and Terezi was the last person you'd wish that on.  

"But when you withdraw and cover yourself up like that, you're actually just preventing people from seeing someone who's already beautiful," you finished, and she finally jerked her head up at that.

 

For a moment you wondered if she still liked you enough for that to mean something to her. But then her shoulders slumped again and you realized how much of your desire to be with her again was probably coming across. You awkwardly left as she continued to silently acknowledge you. You didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the past.

 

* * *

 

You rise up, and it is from so much more than physical death.  

Your body hovers in the air, fireflies gathering around the corpse which you at once inhabit and transcend. You can see yourself from the outside; your face is cold and tired and dead. But when the fireflies reach your skin, it begins to glow. Your wounds knit themselves shut. Your tired expression becomes one of serenity. The blood and dirt and tears on your skin dissolve and dissipate into the blackness around you. The clothes on your body, threadbare from a sweep of too little washing, become new ones. A sharp prickling sensation surges down your spine as wings burst from your back and unfurl behind you. And your eyes, now open, slowly fill with red once again.

At the moment they completely fill, you See everything. Every mind in paradox space is a sensory node for your omniscience. You reach through your web to confirm the safety of your friends. Dave. Aradia. Kanaya. Sollux. Rose. Karkat.

Karkat is waking up beside you, brown cape flowing down his back as he hovers above his stone slab. He's confused and awed, and glad that you both made it out alive. His wings are beautiful.  

You turn to him and share the briefest of embraces before speeding down to the the surface below. You both know what you have to do. You have to fix the rend in reality that is tearing through paradox space. It begins and ends here: Skaia.

You know your role: to reach out to every mind in the universe. The rush as you exert your powers is dizzying so soon after your awakening, and it is not only your power--you can feel yourself energized and warped in every possible way as you and all the other gods of creation bend the fabric of reality to your control. You lose track of your physical body. You are everywhere at once. You are everywhen at once. All you can do is follow Rose's command and hold on.

It's Jade at the center of it all, forcing shards of universes back into place. With whatever sense you perceive her she resembles a black hole, a swirling mass of energy around which reality contracts. Some tiny part of you, infinitesimal in comparison to your whole awareness, registers that Karkat has taken hold of your hand. You squeeze back.

Everything shudders, Jade cries out, and in a rush you contract down to one self, one body, Terezi Pyrope. In a quiet voice Jade speaks.  

"We win."

The breath you hadn't realized you'd been holding escapes you as tired shouts begin to rise from the rest of the group, led by John. Karkat turns to you and the last of the strain leaves your body. Euphoria floods you, and a grin returns to your face as you join the shouting. "Fuck yeah!"

Karkat looks at you and he's smiling too. "No asshole takes our universe away from us!" he yells. "We're fucking gods!" He wraps his arms around you and hugs you, knocking the air out of you in a giddy rush. You can See that he wants to fix mistakes he made, to start over with you, to _kiss you_ right here. And your heart sings back with how much you've missed him, how much you've wanted to be this close to him for sweeps.  

You kiss him aggressively, greedily, like the world's about to end rather than like it's just been recreated. He cups your head and you pull him close, and everything feels like it's still glowing.

 


End file.
